So we are planning to take the kids camping today. Give them an experience of the real outdoors for just one night to see how they handle it. DH & I (even with my pregnant self) can really rough it, but his kids are softies. They've camped out only in the backyard so far.

Anyway, I'm sitting around waiting on them to arrive. On Thur, DH asked BM to drop them off early on Fri. BM said she'll try, SD gets out of school at such time, traffic is such and such, but hey, she said she'd try. All a big lie.

On Fri, she SAYS she's dropping the kids on Sat - no explanation. DH has to beg her to please drop them early, because she was planning to drop them after she finishes work which is around lunch time.

DH is working his ass off so that he can take this one night off to carry them camping, so we wanted them early so that they can help me with the packing (while DH is getting work done). Packing for camping is quarter of the experience.

I knew DH made a mistake the minute he actually mentioned our plans to go camping to the kids last weekend. When BM said she was dropping them Sat instead, DH was about to cancel the trip, but guess who promptly got on the phone and said how they were so excited and they didn't want to cancel etc etc. Yup. Kiddos.

So anyway, I'm here waiting to see if she actually drops them before work instead of after, because I told DH that if they show up after lunch and I end up having to do all the packing by myself, I'm not interested in going. I feel bad about saying that though. DH is burning both ends of the candle trying to make it happen. It's kinda sad how the kids don't see the grand effort he has to make, even when some forces are trying their best to work against him.

Would you hold kids up to their end of the bargain (i.e. they have to help pack or we don't go) if it's clearly BM frustrating the issue? Does it make sense to not let them get the experience (today, it might happen some other time) because their mom didn't hold up her end of the deal? They take things for granted a lot, so I figure they're going to be more mad at DH than BM if they don't get to go, in their simplistic thinking, "dad promised, and he didn't take us", without much concern for how it played out in real life.

La dee dah.... still waiting, they were supposed to be here 30 mins ago....